The Flying Blue program is the frequent flyer program of both Air France and Dutch airline KLM, both of which are members of SkyTeam Alliance. This program was created shortly after these two historic airlines merged in 2004, forming Air France-KLM Group. Now, travelers can earn Flying Blue miles when flying on Air France, KLM or any of the airline partners of the Flying Blue program.

Flying Blue has been highly rated since its formation in 2005. However, the program has experienced some devaluations over the years. Nevertheless, this is still a great program through which to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles.

There are many ways to redeem miles through the Flying Blue program, including purchasing merchandise, booking hotels and more. But, if you want to get the maximum possible value out of your miles, you should stick to redeeming for award flights on Air France, KLM or one of their airline partners. Award flight redemptions tend to offer considerably more value than most other redemption options.

If you’re unfamiliar with how frequent flyer programs work, though, it could be difficult for you to navigate the process of actually purchasing an award flight. So, in this article, we’re going to walk you through the process of booking an award flight.

Joining Air France-KLM Flying Blue

Before you earn or redeem Flying Blue miles, you’ll first have to become a member of the Flying Blue program. To do so, you can visit either the Air France or KLM website. Then, on the homepage, hover over the “Log in” button on the top-right and click the “Sign up” option that appears.

Air France website

From there, you’ll be redirected to a page that lists the benefits of the Flying Blue program. Near the bottom of the page, you’ll click the “Create your account” button.

You’ll then be asked to provide personal information including your name, home address, title, email address, preferred language and phone number. All of this personal information is secure and will not be shared without your consent.

Create an Air France Account

Once you confirm all of your personal information, you’ll be sent a confirmation email and you’ll need to enter the PIN number included in that email. Once you’ve done that, you’ll have successfully enrolled in the Flying Blue program. You’ll receive your own membership account number and be eligible to start earning and redeeming points.

How to Earn Flying Blue Miles

Before you book an award flight through the Flying Blue frequent flyer program, you’ll need to earn some Flying Blue miles. You can earn Flying Blue miles in many different ways. However, the most effective ways to earn these miles are to transfer points from credit card rewards programs, signing up for a Flying Blue co-branded credit card or flying with either Air France, KLM or an airline partner.

In the following sections, we’ll take a brief look at each of the ways to earn Flying Blue miles so you can quickly earn enough to purchase an award flight.

Transfer Credit Card Points

Perhaps the most effective way to boost your Flying Blue miles balance is to transfer points from credit card rewards programs. The Air France-KLM Flying Blue program is a 1:1 transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Brex, Capital One Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards and Wells Fargo Rewards. So, for instance, if you were to transfer 100,000 points from any of the major credit card rewards programs to the Flying Blue program, you’d receive 100,000 Flying Blue miles.

Transfers from these credit card rewards programs are instant in most cases. So, you could transfer points from your credit card to your Flying Blue account and then redeem those Flying Blue miles for an award flight within minutes.

Sign Up for the Flying Blue Co-Branded Credit Card

Another great way to earn a lot of Flying Blue miles quickly is to sign up for the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard, the only Flying Blue co-branded credit card offered in the United States. With this card, you can earn a new cardmember bonus of tens of thousands of Flying Blue miles when you sign up and spend a certain amount of money on your card in a certain amount of time.

This credit card includes everyday spending bonuses as well as certain other benefits that will make flying with Air France and KLM more comfortable. The following chart includes everything you need to know about the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard.

Annual fee$89
Spending bonuses
  • 3X miles on airline purchases from Air France, KLM and SkyTeam member airlines
  • 1.5X miles on all other purchases
Other notable benefits
  • Receive 5,000 bonus miles every cardmember anniversary as long as you spent $50 on your card in the last cardmember year
  • Receive 60 XP toward Flying Blue elite status when you’re approved for the card plus an additional 40 XP when you’re meet the requirements for the welcome bonus (100 XP combined, which is enough to earn Silver elite status)
  • No foreign transaction fees

As long as you meet the requirement for this card’s welcome bonus, you’ll earn enough XP to reach Flying Blue Silver elite status. This elite status includes the following perks:

  • Earn additional Flying Blue miles on Air France- and KLM-marketed flights and selected extra options
  • Priority check-in, baggage drop-off and boarding
  • Some free seat options 24 hours before departure
  • Free seat selection for standard seats
  • One free extra checked bag on all SkyTeam flights

So, as you can see, signing up for the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard is a great way to rapidly earn Flying Blue miles as well as save yourself time and money when flying with Air France, KLM and other SkyTeam airlines.

Fly With Air France, KLM and Partner Airlines

Another effective way to earn Flying Blue miles is to take flights with either Air France, KLM or one of the many airline partners of the Flying Blue program. As mentioned earlier, both Air France and KLM are members of SkyTeam Alliance, so you can earn Flying Blue miles by flying with any SkyTeam airline. Here’s the current roster of SkyTeam Alliance airlines:

  • Aerolíneas Argentinas
  • Aeroméxico
  • Air Europa
  • Air France
  • China Airlines
  • China Eastern
  • China Southern
  • Czech Airlines
  • Delta Air Lines
  • Garuda Indonesia
  • ITA Airways
  • Kenya Airways
  • KLM
  • Korean Air
  • Middle East Airlines
  • Scandinavian Airlines (SAS)
  • Saudia
  • TAROM
  • Vietnam Airlines
  • Virgin Atlantic
  • XiamenAir

In addition to the SkyTeam Alliance partners listed above, the Air France-KLM Flying Blue program also has partnerships with several airlines outside of SkyTeam Alliance. These non-SkyTeam partners include the following:

You can earn Flying Blue miles on Air France, KLM or any of the partner airlines when you select Flying Blue as your frequent flyer program of choice and enter your membership number.

When flying with either Air France or KLM, you’ll earn miles at the following rates depending on your status tier:

  • Explorer: 4X miles per €1 spent
  • Silver: 6X miles per €1 spent
  • Gold: 7X miles per €1 spent
  • Platinum: 8X miles per €1 spent

When it comes to earning miles on partner airlines, each airline partner has its own earnings rates. To check these rates, visit the Flying Blue website, choose “Earn Miles” from the drop-down menu and select the “Airline” option. From there, you’ll be redirected to the partner airlines page where you can click on whichever airline you want to see how many Flying Blue miles you could earn by flying with them.

Other Ways to Earn Flying Blue Miles

Aside from the earning methods described above, there are several other ways to earn miles through the Flying Blue program. Some of these methods include renting cars, booking hotel stays, buying merchandise, booking experiences and more.

In all likelihood, none of these other earning methods alone will yield many points for you. However, if you’re going to make any of these purchases anyway, you may as well earn some Flying Blue miles for them and get a little bit closer to your next award flight.

You also have the option to purchase miles for cash through the Flying Blue program. However, since you’ll typically have to pay more per mile than the value that you can get out of them, we recommend against this.

Book Award Flights Through Air France-KLM Flying Blue

How to Book Award Flights Through Air France-KLM Flying Blue

Now that you understand how to create a Flying Blue account and how to earn Flying Blue miles, let’s look at the process of booking award flights through the Flying Blue program.

You can book award flights through either the Air France or the KLM website using your Flying Blue account. Both have very similar designs and functionalities, so booking award flights through either website is almost exactly the same.

Regardless of which website you use, the first thing you should do is sign in to your account using your Flying Blue credentials. Once you do that, return to the homepage and click the “Book with Miles” option above the flight search tool. This will ensure that all flight prices are displayed in miles.

Then, you can search for a flight as you normally would by entering your origin and destination, travel dates, number of passengers, type of flight (one-way, round-trip or multi-city) and preferred cabin class. Then, click the “Search” button to view the results.

You’ll then be redirected to a list of available award flights that match your search query. Once you find a flight result that fits your needs, click on the cabin class that you’d like to book on that flight.

After that, you’ll be shown any fare types for that cabin class that are available to book with miles. It’s important to pay attention to what’s offered with each fare type as they tend to offer different options for cancelation and changes as well as different baggage allowances.

From there, you’ll be asked to enter personal details for any travelers on your itinerary, including name, phone number, email address and more. Finally, you’ll need to enter payment details to cover any applicable taxes and fees on your award reservation.

Once you’ve entered all of the necessary information and confirmed your booking, you should receive an email containing your flight confirmation number and flight details. Then, just as you would with a cash flight, simply enter this confirmation number when checking in for your flight (which is available within 24 hours of your departure time) to receive your boarding pass.

The Bottom Line

The Air France-KLM Flying Blue program is a highly-rated frequent flyer program for a lot of reasons. For one, there are plenty of ways to earn Flying Blue miles, including transferring points from any major credit card rewards program at a 1:1 ratio, signing up for the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard or flying with one of the many eligible airlines.

Once you’ve earned enough Flying Blue miles, the process of purchasing an award flight is simple. Just visit either the Air France or the KLM website and click on the “Book with Miles” tab on the flight search tool and then search for flights as you normally would.

The Flying Blue program has a ton of award availability, lots of airline partners with which you can redeem Flying Blue miles and favorable rates on award flights.